Japanese b’casters team for MIPTV Treasures

Eight Japanese broadcasters are once again joining forces to jointly launch new shows and formats at MIPTV under the Treasure Box Japan (TBJ) initiative.

TBJ comprises NHK, NEP, Nippon, TV Asahi, TBS, TV Tokyo, Fuji and YTV, and the group is jointly coming to market for the seventh time.

“While Japanese formats were selling ever since the late 1980’s, the joint efforts between the private, public sector and the government to promote Japanese formats under one flagship, raised the recognition level and popularity at the international arena,” the group said in a statement.

TBJ moved into the main Palais last year, having previously been a presentation and screening at MIP Formats. Each of the broadcasters gets to present their own selection in the Grand Auditorium.

NHK said: “We get many enquirers from overseas buyers who say that they have seen our presentation at TBJ. We are currently having ongoing discussions about Fairy Tales in Court, which we presented at last TBJ in October.”

YTV claimed TBJ “makes our sales meeting more efficient and effective as we can start the negotiation with the clients already have seen our presentation and know what they want at TBJ”.

ABC, meanwhile, said TBJ has fuelled sales of one of its key formats, Who is the Real Celebrity?. “It has been sold to the whole Asian territories and the local version is actually being aired in Thailand in this coming spring,” the broadcaster said.

2017 launches include relationship format Meet Me There from NTV, family gameshow The 3 Family 3 Day Challenge from TV Asahi, and cooking competition format Thief Chef from ABC.

TBS will have physical gameshow Tokyo Friendly Park, and TV Tokyo will follow up its What’s Daddy format from a previous TBJ with This is My Mom!, a fact-ent show putting mums and kids on screen.

The TBJ showcase takes place on April 1 at 12:20pm.